Kanye’s Latest Paparazzi Musings: “You Help Kim’s Power and Everything”

Sometimes you drive into a semi-abandoned gas station in Calabasas thinking that you’re just going to fill up your matte-black Lamborghini with premium. And then you end up giving a spontaneous discourse on humanity and the nature of celebrity to the few patrons (or photographers) present. Such was the all-too-human situation in which Kanye West found himself on Friday when the rapper and self-proclaimed genius pulled up to a B.P. station and charmingly, we guess, continued his peacemaking tour, this time with L.A. paparazzi.

Days after repairing his relationship with Jimmy Kimmel on national television, West found himself engaging somewhat politely with Los Angeles–area photographers. At first, judging by TMZ’s shaky-cam coverage of the surprise summit, it did not seem as though Kanye would engage with the photographers. But then one paparazzo said the magic word—calling West a “superstar”—and West’s icy façade melted, just next to Pump Three.

“It’s not about being a superstar,” Kanye said, pausing in his steps. “It’s about being a human being. And I really appreciate that. One of these [photographers who was shouting at Kanye] was saying some bullshit earlier like, ‘You got to respect doctors.’ You got to respect human beings.”

Meaningful pause.

“My family is growing up, if you think about it,” West continued. “If you had a daughter, and you guys say, like, crazy shit to me all of the time, right, and to my family? I couldn’t imagine my daughter being, like, four years old and you guys screaming at [her]. I think somebody screamed at Tom Cruise’s daughter or something like that.”

During this last sentence, he paused and placed a finger at his temple as if to remember the exact Us Weekly–chronicled incident.

Referring to the scuffle he had with an LAX photographer, which culminated in a lawsuit, he said, “It’s like, the [paparazzo] set me up at the airport the other day by yelling [censored]. What I didn’t get to say onJimmy Kimmel was that [happened] the day I found out my grandfather was not going to make it. But when I came out of the airport, [they think], ‘It’s Kanye. We’re going to antagonize him.’ I tried to stop his camera. He fell down, faked it, and now everyone’s like ‘Why did you hit the guy?’ I obviously didn’t hit the guy. But I’m going through shit.”

Winding up for the conclusion to this somewhat incredible, off-the-cuff rant, he leveled with his audience, “I know you guys are going to try to photograph me. I know it makes a cool photo. I got a cool-ass car and shit. I got a dope-ass house. It’s all good. But you know, it’s like, we’re in this together. You guys help me influence. You help with the family. You help Kim’s power and everything. I’m not trying to be at you guys in any kind of negative way. . . . I would prefer that we just have a decent relationship.”

With that, West ended the speech and slid into his Lamborgini as his partners in Kim-Kardashian-publicity-generating crime attempted to ask more questions. Refusing to give much more, he assured them, “You guys will get some footage or photos” of Nori, before awkwardly closing his door mid–photographer’s statement.

They may not have had more than two minutes of Kanye diatribe, but they will always have Pump Three at the Calabasas B.P.